


Don´t Leave

by yvochrali



Series: The Retoldverse [15]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Buffy the Vampire Slayer References, Canon Dialogue, Episode: s01e12 Prophecy Girl, Fate & Destiny, Fear of Death, Friendship, Gen, Hurt Buffy Summers, Rescue Missions, Screw Destiny, Season/Series 01, Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, Slayer Handbook, Slayer-Watcher Relationship, Souled Spike (BtVS)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:06:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29141967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yvochrali/pseuds/yvochrali
Summary: It's the end. Then again, it may also not be. Stupid prophecies. Part 15 of the Retoldverse. Set in Season 1.
Relationships: Buffy Summers & Dawn Summers, Rupert Giles & Buffy Summers, Rupert Giles & Dawn Summers, Rupert Giles & Xander Harris & Willow Rosenberg & Buffy Summers, Scoobies & Spike (BtVS), Willow Rosenberg & Dawn Summers, Xander Harris & Dawn Summers
Series: The Retoldverse [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1891282
Kudos: 2





	Don´t Leave

**Author's Note:**

> I wonder what my excuse for writing this time is…
> 
> Hint: I was feeling writer-y. 
> 
> Dawn: “It’s seriously creepy when you try to channel Willow.”
> 
> Xander: (nods gravely) “You heard her; only our very own Willow-pooh can put a y at the end of everything, little lady!”
> 
> (Holds her hands up) Consider myself officially chastened. 
> 
> Faith: “And this is why you should all just (CENSORED) leave the (CENSORED) nicknaming to the (CENSORED) Boston chick…” (rolls eyes)
> 
> Nobody nicknames like Beantown girl. 
> 
> Faith: (stares at Author blankly) “Dude, just…just don´t even try.”
> 
> Disclaimer: I don´t own the Buffyverse. That right goes to Joss Whedon and a whole buncha other people. 
> 
> (A faint complaint is heard in the background) “Why am I always (CENSORED) censored?!”

**Don´t Leave Me**

**Set in Season 1**

“ _No!_ _You can´t leave me!_ ” A shrill scream sliced through the silence, disrupting the moment of horror.

Buffy hysterical laughter suddenly stopped. She barely stopped herself from crumbling to the ground right then and there, her slight frame racking with unrestrained sobs. Small, thin arms gripped onto her jacket uncomfortably.

Giles opened his mouth, but no sound came out. What words of comfort could he give, now that the young girl had heard those words? Behind him, Spike watched the scene unfold, deep-seated guilt stirring within his chest, within his very soul. _And Nibblet as well…fuck, Dawn. You shouldn´t have heard this._ His heart twisted in anguish for the younger girl. Not for the first time, he cursed his soul. _Bloody fucking feelings. Always getting in the way._

A whole range of different emotions flittered across Buffy’s stunned face: shock, confusion, sorrow, fear, anger, _pain_. A lot of pain.

“S-so, that´s it, huh?” She whispered, looking directly at Giles, her hazel eyes filled with tears, her voice shaking and vulnerable. Beside her, a white-faced Dawn was clutched desperately at her sister, tears streaming down her cheeks. 

Giles took a step towards her, his own face pale. “Oh Lord, Buffy, I…” He stopped. Words escaped him, just out of reach. Nothing, _nothing_ he could say or do would make it better.

His young charge was going to walk to her death, led by the Anointed One to her inevitable fate.

“No,” Dawn whispered, her eyes red and puffy. “ _No.”_ She repeated with more force. “You´re not going to die!” She trapped Buffy’s arm in a death grip. “You can´t…” She sobbed.

Buffy grabbed onto her beloved little sister’s hand gently, giving it a squeeze. Somewhere in the deep grief and sorrow, a voice whispered to her that Dawn was not supposed to be there, but she ignored it. She could deal with that later.

Hazel orbs met grey ones. She felt numb. Cold. Dead. _Ms._ _Irony meet Buffy, ill-fated vampire slayer and soon-to-be-one-with-death._ Like her whole world was drowning; she along with it. Dawn’s clammy hand fit perfectly in hers, she thought distantly.

“The slayer dies.” Cold hands gripped her throat, choking her. _I´m going to die._ “The next one is called. Isn´t that how it goes?” _Can´t breathe. Can´t breathe._ “I wonder who she is.” She added, more to herself.

Pain flashed in Giles´s eyes. Dawn whimpered. _Please don´t talk like that…please, stop._

“Buffy, I-I-I don´t know what to say.” The older man stammered. His gaze shifted uneasily to Dawn´s frightened eyes.

He´d never intended to get attached but attached he had gotten. Who wouldn´t? This bright, charming, tenacious, willful, and often disrespectful girl had – despite their admittedly rocky start – quite successfully burrowed a place for herself in his heart. 

Unnoticed to them, Spike had quietly slipped out of the library.

“Will you train her?” Buffy asked calmly. “Or will they send someone else?”

“The Watcher´s Council would never let me stay. O-Officially, I´m not an American citizen.” Giles replied. _Damn the Council. I'll stay if you want me to._

“Did it-“ Buffy was suddenly overcome by a wave of emotion. “Did it say that it was gonna kill me?” A tear made its way down her left cheek. “Is it going to hurt?” She asked in a very small voice, sounding almost like a young child asking her mother if going to heaven hurt.

“Buffy-“ Giles began to say. His own voice shook with heavy emotion.

“What are you gonna tell my mom?” Tears trickled down faster, rolling down her cheeks and falling faster and faster to the hard, wooden floor below. “The _truth_? Or will _my little sister_ have to lie to her?” She looked briefly at Dawn as she said this. “What will you do, huh Giles?”

Giles stood stock-still, stunned to silence.

 _I´d have to tell her the truth,_ Dawn thought horrified. _I cannot just lie to my mom. No,_ she said to herself. _Buffy’s not gonna die._

“Were you even gonna tell me?” Buffy looked up at Giles in betrayal, her cheeks burning raw with her tears. She clung as tightly as she could to Dawn without hurting her. She younger girl was still too shocked and bewildered to do anything else except silently sob against her sister’s chest. For a moment, she hated herself for allowing her sister to even get involved in the first place.

The older man finally found his voice. He sighed deeply. “I was hoping I wouldn´t have to…” He shrugged helplessly, his voice wavering with uncertainty. He sounded lost and hopeless. “…t-that there was some way around it.”

“But there isn´t.” Dawn suddenly quietly said. She looked up at Giles with something akin to hope. “Is there?”

“I-I haven´t done enough, erm, r-research into it yet. Maybe if I-“. Before he could go on, Buffy interrupted him.

“I got a way around it.” She spoke. Both Dawn and Giles snapped their heads up to look at her in surprise. Giles felt dread come upon him at the tone in Buffy’s voice.

“I quit.” Buffy declared, sniffing. She nodded her head as if trying to convince herself that the idea had some merit.

Giles was suddenly – and painfully – reminded of the very first day he´d met her.

_“With the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to stop the spread of their evil blah, blah, blah… I’ve heard it, okay?”_

_“I really don’t understand this attitude. You, you’ve accepted your duty, you, you’ve slain vampires before…”_

_“Yeah, and I’ve both been there and done that, and I’m moving on.”_

“It isn´t that simple…” Giles tried to reason with her.

“I´m making it that simple!” Anger now colored her voice. “I _quit_! I-I _resign_! _I´m fired_!” Her voice shook violently. “You can find someone else to stop the Master from taking over because I´m not doing it!”

“I´m not sure anyone else can.” The older man said quietly. “I wish I could say otherwise but the prophecy…”

Something snapped inside Dawn at his words. “You _want_ my _sister to die?!_ ” She cried, breaking free from Buffy’s grip. “Find someone else!” She pleaded.

“Dawn…” Sorrow filled Buffy at her sister’s distressed voice. _Oh God, Dawn._

”The prophecy-”

”Who _cares_ about a stupid prophecy?!” Dawn interrupted him, not dissimilar to her sister. “ _She´s my sister and you can´t take her away from me!_ ” She turned to Buffy. “Please don’t leave me.” The young girl wept. “I don’t want you to go.” She said desperately, her baby-blue eyes searching her sister’s hazel ones.

“Oh, Dawnie…” Buffy wrapped her arms around her distraught sister. “I won’t.”

Dawn’s bottom lip trembled. “Promise?” She asked childishly.

“I promise.”

* * *

Prophecies were fickle things, Rupert Giles reasoned with himself. Nothing was ever set in stone. But while destinies could be altered, fate was rarely to be toyed with, he reminded himself. Nevertheless, a small glimmer of hope had awakened inside of him, partially inspired by Dawn’s undoubtedly touching words.

Buffy had gone into the Master’s lair, led by the Anointed One. The Master had – as prophesied – killed Buffy. Drowned her in a pool. He shivered slightly at the thought.

What had not been prophesied however was Xander’s supposedly inconsequential rescue of Buffy. The brave, foolish boy had gone down to the Master’s lair, knowing fully well of the risk to his safety – or maybe he simply didn’t care - and had successfully resuscitated the slayer by performing CPR on her.

The Master was dead, or “dust in the wind” as Xander had put it. Willow and Dawn had unsurprisingly been most overjoyed at the sight of the two other Scoobies staggering into the library a few hours later, exhausted but alright, and had promptly latched themselves onto them like little human-sized limpets.

It certainly was a sight to behold, and to cherish, for he would not disguise his feelings of relief as anything other than what it was. Relief.

He looked down at a small, black book in front of him. Giles frowned, contemplating something.

_The Slayer Handbook_

He spared it a second glance.

And then, without a single ounce of regret, chucked it across the room and into the nearby trash can.

**Finite**

**Author's Note:**

> Goddess, that was emotionally-charged. Aliens could feel it from the next galaxy...
> 
> I don't believe in aliens actually. 
> 
> Honestly, the best part was the end. "and then promptly latched themselves onto them like little human-sized limpets". Hahahaha. I like the word "limpet". It's seriously cute. Say it out aloud. "L-i-m-p-e-t". (squeals)
> 
> And yes, Faith keeps on forgetting that since this fic is for all ages, not Teens, she can curse like a marine and it´ll all be censored. 
> 
> Spike can get a free-pass though for this situation. 
> 
> Faith: (glares) 
> 
> Until next time! Read, review and give kudos! Feedback is awesome and kudos are literally "likes" if anybody didn't know. 
> 
> xo


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